FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FROM: William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration
Rochester, NY 14627
George Tomczyk 716/275-8189
FOR: Padilla Speer Beardsley
950 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
John Johmann 212/752-8338; [email protected]

SIMON SCHOOL HONORED WITH TEMPLETON AWARD FOR DISTINCTION IN CURRICULUM AND FACULTY

Pursuit of Excellence Creates Winning Formula At Simon

ROCHESTER, NY June 04, 1997 -- The University of Rochester's William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration was honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on May 21 by the Templeton Honor Rolls for Education in a Free Society with their prestigious award celebrating excellence in American higher education. A total of 126 leading scholars and institutions were cited for their commitment to returning American higher education to academic health. Of this group, 29 university departments and special programs were recognized, and the Simon School was one of only two graduate business schools selected. (The management program at UCLA was also cited.)

The awards were established by Sir John Templeton, world-famous investor and philanthropist, to honor America's finest educators and institutions of higher learning. The honorees were chosen for their commitment to excellence in the liberal arts tradition by a distinguished Executive Committee which includes three Nobel Prize winners.

The Simon School was cited in four key areas:
-- The School was recognized for placing business education in the broader practical and intellectual framework it deserves.

-- In the area of "integration of materials," the Simon School received the highest ranking of America's 44 leading business schools.

-- The School was noted for consistently putting its ideas into practice by working on a series of "living" cases and drawing on real-world management problems.

-- An added benefit mentioned is the Simon School's Bradley Policy Research Center, which sponsors both the Shadow Open Market Committee and the Shadow Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Although we do not judge our success solely on awards and rankings," noted Charles Plosser, Dean of the Simon School, "it is gratifying to see our efforts once again publicly recognized. We accept the Templeton Award with distinct pleasure, and will continue to focus on providing the highest value-added educational experience we possibly can so that our students will be successful in their chosen careers."

The Templeton Award comes on the heels of the Simon School having moved to the 20th spot in U.S. News & World Report's 1997 survey of the top 25 business schools in the country. The move represents a healthy jump of three places for Simon, which held the 23rd slot in the 1996 survey. The Simon School also ranked 21st in Business Week's October 1996 survey of the top 25 business schools in the country. In addition, the Simon School was just ranked 14th by Computerland newspaper in its second annual ranking of the top 25 "Techno" MBA programs. The publication polled more than 3,000 corporate recruiters and 323 business school deans to determine which programs offered the best business and computer technology courses combined into a single master's degree. The Simon School's relative youth and small size (the full-time student body consists of 400 men and women with a mean age of 29) have encouraged the innovation and flexibility that distinguish the School. Its relative youth has allowed it to transcend traditional approaches to teaching, stimulating an environment for some of today's most creative thinking on management issues. The Simon School, with one of the most highly regarded faculties in the country, is also a leading research facility. Its approach to business education involves rigorously applying economics to the study of organizations.

####

Information about the Simon School is also available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ssb.rochester.edu